by A.B. Simpson

“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Matthew 3:11

The mightiest physical force we know is fire. Hence from the earliest ages, even in false religions, it has been recognized as a symbol of the supernatural and even worshipped and deified. It is one of the oldest divine emblems of the Holy Ghost. We see it in the flaming sword at the gates of Eden, the burning lamps that appeared to Abraham in connection with his sacrifice, the burning bush in which God appeared to Moses in the land of Midian, the pillar of cloud and fire which led the Israelites, the consuming fire that enshrouded Mount Sinai, the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies, the fire that answered Elijah’s prayer and settled the test of the false and true God of Israel and many other illustrations closing with the Pentecostal flame which marked the advent of the Holy Ghost.

We should first notice that the baptism of fire is not different from the baptism with the Holy Ghost. It is simply an expletive phrase qualifying and completing the thought expressed in the first phrase. The Holy Ghost is Himself a Divine Fire, and when He takes possession of a soul His operations are similar to the effect of fire in the natural world. The baptism with fire, however, suggests a stronger and more searching operation of the Spirit than that which is expressed by the other figure of water which John employs. Even in the Old Testament types and ceremonials we find God making a distinction between water and fire, especially in one striking passage where it was commanded that everything must be purified either by water or fire, and that if it could not stand fire it was to be purified by water. Does this imply that God deals differently with different souls according to their spiritual capacity and the completeness of their surrender to him? Is it because you are not able or willing to stand the fire that you have not received and God has had to deal with you in a less thorough and searching way?

We have a reference to the purifying effects of fire in Malachi 3:2 “…He is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap, and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and shall purify the sons of Levi.” Malachi is speaking of the work of the jeweler as he sits before his crucible watching the fierce flame as it eliminates the dross and leaves the silver so perfectly refined that at length He can see his face in the glowing metal. So the Holy Spirit sits down in His slow and patient work in a surrendered heart, revealing and removing selfishness and sin until at last the image of Christ shines from all our inner being.

We have a very solemn picture of the testing fire in 1 Corinthians 3:13 “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” While this undoubtedly refers to the testing fires of the final day, yet the language of John the Baptist distinctly implies that every one of us must pass through one of two fires. We must either have the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit now or that later flame of which he says, “He shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

“Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), is not wholly an angry threat. Rather it is a revelation of God in His sanctifying grace and power. It is “Our God” who is a “consuming fire.” There are things in all of us that we are not able to eliminate ourselves, and we would give any price to have consumed. It is such a privilege to have a fire on which we can lay them through our great Sin Offering and to have them burn to ashes without the camp. Beloved, have you experienced the blessedness of having God’s fire burn out your inmost being? Do you know what it is to lay over everything of the flesh and self and sin on the Lamb of God as your Sin Offering, and then see Him consumed with your sin outside the camp while your soul is cleansed and emancipated and you joyfully sing, —

Oh fire of God, burn on, burn on,
Till all my dross is burned away;
Oh, fire of God, burn on, burn on,
Prepare me for the testing day.

The Holy Ghost kindles in the soul the fires of love, the flame that melts our selfishness and pours out our being in tenderness, sacrifice and service. And the same fire of love is the fusing, uniting flame, which makes Christians one, even as the volcanic tide that rolls down the mountain fuses into one current everything in its course.

Above all things fire is the mightiest of forces. It drives our engines and propels our commerce. It is the only thing that can move the heart of man and the Church of God. Oh, for the dynamite of the Holy Ghost;

“Oh, for a passionate passion for souls,
Oh, for the pity that yearns!
Oh, for the love that loves unto death,

Oh, for the fire that burns!”